The Role of Emotional Arousal in Food Preference and Taste

"The stress imagery script will be based on subjects' description of a recent personal stressful event that they had experienced as most stressful. Most stressful is determined by having the subjects rate the perceived stress experienced by them on a 10-point Likert scale where 1=not at all stressful and 10=the most stress they felt recently in their life. Only situations rated as 8 or above on this scale are accepted as appropriate for script development. Examples of acceptable stressful situations include breakup with significant other, a verbal argument with a significant other or family member or unemployment-related stress, such as being fired or laid off from work."

A food cue script will be developed from the subjects' experience of eating their most favorite foods. Examples include ordering pizza, cooking a favorite meal, or going out to a restaurant.

A neutral-relaxing script will be developed from the subjects' commonly experienced neutral-relaxing situations, such as a trip to the beach or park.